Hey there. I'm new to SETI@home, and I'm still unsure about what I'm supposed to do. Do I just let the program sit there running while I do other things, or am I supposed to do something else? Also, what am I supposed to do about the "work done for this project" thing at the bottom of my BOINC window? Another thing I'm wondering about is if the program will cause any harm or make any unwanted changes to my computer. I would really like to know. Thanks!

First, welcome on board - why not take a trip into the interior now you have enough credits to gain entry, you will be more than welcome in "the cafe"
There are two schools of thought - the tinker and the laid back.
The tinkerer will tweak and twiddle settings to get the last squeak out of the PC.
The laid back will just let it run, with just the odd peep to see if it is still OK.
If you get enough credits (that's the units used in the "work done for this project" message) you will get a toaster. The trouble is nobody is sure how many credits are required for a toaster, and since nobody has reported getting one yet, we aren't too sure if it actually exists
BONIC and SETI@Home are "well behaved" programs, yo are in control of how they behave, and if you've installed the default settings that is a pretty tame thing to do - the only new things installed are the libraries used by BOINC and S@H to work.
Harm, that may be self inflicted if you have a "marginal" system which you seriously over-clock, then run 24/7, but for most "normal" users that isn't an issue.

Take care, and have fun.Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

I guess what I meant by "am I supposed to be doing something else" is "am I supposed to be looking for anything unnusual?".

That is what the computers are doing. The computers crunch the numbers and report the results. They are then compared with a duplicate task. These results are then compared with results from different nights in the same place in the sky. If there is anything consistently interesting, it will be flagged for later.

There is really nothing to be done with eyeballs staring at the screen.BOINC WIKI

hello im new to seti home and i am trying to find out more about the 3 large objects comeing to eath discuvered by Astrophysicist Craig Kasnov can someown help me plz

I found this on an old forum:

My name is Craig Kasnoff. And I was the one who 'co-concieved' the idea for SETI@HOME with David Gedye.

And no, I am not an astrophysicist.

If this discussion is inferring that I, Craig Kasnoff, (and not Craig Kasnov) have made an announcement regarding 'large rapidly approaching Earth', then that is just plain false.

I have not been involved in any announcement of that kind at all.

However, if there is a 'Craig Kasnov' who is a 'SETI astrophysicist', then you will all have to take that up with him.

My current work focuses on the issue of Endangered Species ( [link to www.Bagheera.com] / [link to TigersinCrisis.com).]

The issue of endangered species was one of the driving considerations in my contribution to the concept of SETI@HOME.

To me, SETI@HOME was not only a way to confirm there was possibly 'life' on other planets, but it was also a way to confirm there weren't any South China Tigers, Giant Pandas, or Komodo Dragons anywhere else but on Earth.

And it was -and still is- my belief that when an animal is forced into extinction, that animal is not just lost to Earth, but is lost to the entire Universe.

And that is tragic.

Anyway, this post may, or may not have, made any contribution to the discussions of 'objects flying towards Earth'. But I hope it clears up any question regarding my involvement this announcement.

I have no involvement in it.

Sincerly,

Craig Kasnoff
www.ckmc.com

So if you came here thinking it had anything to do with SETI@Home sorry to disappoint you. They were also supposed to have arrived by now. It would seem it was all a hoax."Proud to be born and bred in Croydon"

Okay, so I watched that "are we alone" on the science channel this week and decided to give this a try. I downloaded BOINC and am running the SETI application. I know this sounds dumb, but on TV the guy was seeing charts/graphs of the activity that was running on his pc. Was that just for "illustrative purposes" OR can we see similar things running on our PC instead of just the % complete for the active tasks and transfers?? Thanks!

Open BOINC Manager, if in Simple View do Tools->Advanced View, then onto Projects tab, select any of the running Seti tasks and click Show graphics. This will open a graphics window showing a bit what it's doing.

You can also have this as a screen saver, make sure that you have the Windows screen saver set to BOINC. Jord

Ancient Astronaut Theorists suggest that in many ways, you can be considered an alien conspiracy!

Hello, Yes I too am new, I installed everything as instructed, read as many posts as my search could find for the subject, but so far no mention on how to allow the screen saver to run while seti@home is running in the background. I get the message across the screen; task suspended, cpu in use , or some such, then the floating boinc trying to load again, then the same message. as soon as I close the screen saver, the tasks are running, showing all projects, I can see the graphics if I want, but I have to keep clicking on it to keep it up. what is the screen saver graphics supposed to look like when it's working? And could someone explain what the peaks and blocks mean in the graphics? and the numbers from -12367 to 1.01? I'm not sure if there is a decimal point in the first number, my screen resolution (or my eyesight) didn't pick that up. if it matters I'll try harder to check.
I know this is a lot for my first questions, and I hope I don't sound too stupid asking.
Thanks in advance for any info.
Sue